The New Larry Summers on Women and Science

By

Harvard University's president gave a speech Thursday night in which he endorsed and promoted much of the evidence about women and science that was hurled at him after he spoke on the topic in January.

An account of last night's talk in The Boston Globe said that he spoke at length about the bias against women in science and the impact this has. "This has been, as you can imagine, a period of substantial and intense immersion and education for me on the topics I have just been discussing," The Globe quoted him as telling a group of students and professors. "I hope I have learned."

In a January talk, which set off a huge controversy and a vote of no confidence by Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Summers said he doubted that much bias remained and speculated that the best minds in math and science may be more likely to be those of men.

According to The Globe, Summers last night urged people to visit the Web site of Mahzarin Banaji, a Harvard psychology professor who has published extensively on issues of implicit bias.